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Freddy Lounds
''This is the book and movie version. To see the TV version, please go to here.'' Freddie Lounds is a journalist for the National Tattler, who has a long term rivalry with Will Graham, Harris describes Freddy Lounds as "lumpy and ugly and small", with "buck teeth", and whose "rat eyes had the sheen of spit on asphalt". Harris describes Lounds as having "the longing need to be noticed that is often miscalled ego", sharpened by frustrated ambition. Chapters from Lounds' perspective portray him as a hardworking, if unethical, man who migrated into well-paying, but sensationalist, tabloid reporting after concluding he would never be allowed to advance in the world of legitimate journalism. He dates a former stripper named Wendy, whom he helped retire from dancing and purchase the club she once worked in. His primary motivation in the book is the life-changing amount of money he intends to make from publishing a true-crime bestseller based on the Tooth Fairy murders once the killer is finally caught. Red Dragon In the novel Red Dragon, Lounds attempts to elicit information from Will Graham as Graham investigates the serial killer Francis Dolarhyde, whom Lounds has sensationally publicized as "The Tooth Fairy". Graham despises Lounds, who had sneaked into Graham's hospital room after Graham was attacked by Hannibal Lecter and taken pictures of his wounds, publishing them the next day in the Tattler. Lounds becomes aware of secret correspondence between the killer and the now-imprisoned Lecter, and sneaks onto a crime scene to get information. He is caught, however, and threatened with imprisonment unless he cooperates with the investigation. Hoping to lure Dolarhyde into a trap, Graham gives Lounds an interview in which he blatantly misrepresents the killer as an impotent homosexual and the product of incest. Unbeknownst to Lounds or the FBI, Dolarhyde obtains a copy of the Tattler from a news vendor, by force, hours before they officially open. This allows the killer to read the insulting interview well in advance of Lounds' planned rendezvous with the FBI. By the time Graham is waiting for Dolarhyde under SWAT surveillance in the trap location that evening, Dolarhyde has already kidnapped Lounds in Chicago. Dolarhyde epoxy-glues him to an antique wheelchair, shows him slides of his victims, and forces him to recant the published allegations into a tape recorder. Dolarhyde finally shows his face to Lounds, bites his lips off and sets him on fire, leaving his maimed body outside the Tattler's offices before fleeing. Lounds eventually dies in the hospital, cursing Graham for putting him in grave danger, but not before providing information to aid in the hunt for Dolarhyde, for which he is commended. Lecter sends Graham a note congratulating him on Lounds' death, which "implies that the Tooth Fairy's murder of reporter Freddy Lounds is at least a sort of wish-fulfillment for Graham". Graham struggles with the notion that he could've subconsciously allowed Lounds to be murdered, but ultimately concludes that despite his own history with the reporter, he would not have deliberately passed up the opportunity to catch the Red Dragon killer had he known Lounds would be targeted. Manhunter Contrary to his physical description in the books, Lounds in Manhunter is portrayed by Stephen Lang as a well-dressed, fast-talking hotshot who dates multiple women at once. Lounds' facial mutilation at Dolarhyde's hands is not shown in the film, but is "depicted with both more restraint and more ambiguity". In the film, Dolarhyde puts something in his mouth that can not clearly be seen and taunts Lounds, before cutting to an exterior night shot of the killer's house, and letting Lounds' distant, muffled screams tell the real story. He is subsequently set on fire and wheeled back into the National Tattler's parking garage like his literary counterpart. Category:Red Dragon Category:Red Dragon (film) Category:Film Characters Category:Book Characters Category:Deceased